Pericarp and seed of litchi and longan fruits: constituent, extraction, bioactive activity, and potential utilization

Abstract

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) and longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) fruits have a succulent and white aril with a brown seed and are becoming popular worldwide. The two fruits have been used in traditional Chinese medicine as popular herbs in the treatment of neural pain, swelling, and cardiovascular disease. The pericarp and seed portions as the by-products of litchi and longan fruits are estimated to be approximately 30% of the dry weight of the whole fruit and are rich in bioactive constituents. In the recent years, many biological activities, such as tyrosinase inhibitory, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, anti-glycated, and anti-cancer activities, as well as memory-increasing effects, have been reported for the litchi and longan pericarp and seed extracts, indicating a potentially significant contribution to human health. With the increasing production of litchi and longan fruits, enhanced utilization of the two fruit by-products for their inherent bioactive constituents in relation to pharmacological effects is urgently needed. This paper reviews the current advances in the extraction, processing, identification, and biological and pharmacological activities of constituents from litchi and longan by-products. Potential utilization of litchi and longan pericarps and seeds in relation to further research is also discussed.

Tracking toxic hypoglycin A over two maturity stages of different positions in four Chinese litchi cultivars by UPLC-MS/MS

“…as a member of the Sapindaceae family is widely cultivated in Asia, East Africa, Oceania, some Paci c Islands and so forth [34]. As the literature reported [4,5,9], not only the litchi owns edible arils, but also possesses the bioactive compounds in its pericarp and seed of fruits, leaves and branches. However, just like the other species in this family, it caused numerous public health issues in various counties, such as India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and so on [14].…”

“…In addition, the litchi leaves extracts expressed anticancer cell proliferation, antioxidant [5], alleviate hepatic injury [6], antinociceptive [7] and anti-in ammatory properties [8]. As for the extracts from litchi pericarps and seeds, they exhibited the properties of anti-in ammatory, antioxidant, anti-glycated, tyrosinase inhibitory, anti-cancer and immunomodulatory [9].…”

Exhaustive Plant Profile of “Dimocarpus longan Lour” with Significant Phytomedicinal Properties: A Literature Based-Review

“…However, several research findings reported that bioactive phytochemicals from the pulp part of the Lour are phenolic as well as saccharides, both poly-and mono-saccharides [11][12][13][14][15]. Additionally, in recent years, various scientific reports validated that few potential health effective compounds were extracted from the pericarp [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. However, their brownish black seeds are also major sources of botanical phytocompounds [18,20,[23][24][25][26], furthermore, leaves and flowers produce the major botanical phytoconstituents (ethyl gallate, astragalin, luteolin, gentisic acid, epicatechin, proanthocyanidin) that have potential health benefits and most interestingly, all of them belong to either the polyphenol, flavonoid, or both, groups [27,28].…”

A comprehensive insight into the metabolic landscape of fruit pulp, peel, and seed in two longan (Dimocarpus longanLour.) varieties

“…[9][10][11] These metabolites make the longan fruit an indispensable resource for humans as a rich source of nutrients, energy, and other health benefits like increased immunity, blood metabolism, [12,13] and remedy for insomnia. [14,15] Recent studies have also depicted its effects as an antiaging supplement, [16,17] anti-cancer agent, [16,18,19] and antioxidant properties. [1,20] Besides, secondary metabolites like flavonoids and polyphenols provide health-promoting effects against chronic diseases and certain cancers in humans.…”